Stardate 2016.236

After one-night of snow and freeze, yellow aspen leaves become history.


A Few Elk Summits
It could be argued that much of my life has been lived in a cyclic fashion; especially extracurricular activities. I enjoy high mountain adventure, road and mountain biking and canyoneering. I'm currently at a crossroad of leaning more toward mountaineering once again. Thinking about Colorado's high mountain thin, cool-air gives me warm fuzzies all over. Go ahead — roll your eyes.

Colorado's sprawling San Juan Mountains are my favorite range of sub-ranges. Double fuzzies are doled out for the San Juans. I'll leave the San Juans for down the road. Arguably my second favorite range is the Elk Range. The Elks are home to seven Fourteeners (six if you're adamant about the 300-foot rule; i.e., there must be at least 300 feet of elevation difference between adjacent peaks to be an "official' 14er). I'm not quite that anal.

I climbed the Elk 14ers in the 1990s and wouldn't mind revisiting some of the more isolated areas of the Maroon Bells — Snowmass Wilderness. Exquisitely beautiful landscapes and often horribly terrifying loose rock is to be found here.

A north-to-south stretching range, the Elk 14ers north to south are:
Capitol Peak (14,130 ft, rank 29)
Snowmass Mountain (14,092 ft, rank 31)
North Maroon Peak (14,014 ft, soft rank — it doesn't meet 300-foot rule)
Maroon Peak (South Maroon, 14,156 ft, rank 24)
Pyramid Peak (14,018 ft, rank 47)
Castle Peak (14,265 ft, rank 12)
Conundrum Peak (14,060 ft, rank 47 — doesn't meet 300-ft rule)

Below is a northerly view of Snowmass and Capitol from the summit of North Maroon.




The next pic is looking down the south ridge of South Maroon from the summit.




The view of Snowmass and Capitol from the summit of South Maroon is magical.




Yes, there is a loose, intricate, and time-consuming route up the South Ridge to South Maroon's summit.




In the next pic, the view is of Pyramid's intricate northwest face.



Below, we were watching morning sun-hit on the Bells, Snowmass and Capitol from Pyramid's summit.




That's it for now. Sorry I don't appear to have summit shots from Snowmass, Capitol, Castle or Conundrum in a digital format. Yet.

Adios

Stardate 2015.499

Day Four RtR

Crested Butte

The ride to Crested Butte on Day Four was a nice contrast to the wet of the previous day. Originally, there were two options for this day. One option was the normal highway ride from Gunnison to Crested Butte. The second option was the Dirty 30. The Dirty 30 would travel up scenic Ohio Creek, climb and cross Ohio Pass, which is still a dirt road, then drop to Kebler Pass, before the final drop into Crested Butte. Ohio Pass is beautiful, however the powers that be nixed the optional route due to lingering snow and soggy conditions resulting from heavy spring rains.

The day turned out to be a rest day. I think I rolled into Crested Butte around 9 in the morning. Snowcatcher and I spent the day lounging around. Crested Butte proper is a historic mining town. There also exists a ski village a mile or so above old town at the ski area.



The southern terminus of the Elk Mountain Range is shown above. Teocalli Mountain touches the sky at 13,208 feet (state rank # 478) while 14,265 foot Castle Peak (state rank # 12) rises even higher behind Teocalli. I've summited Castle Peak several times, and it's a very scenic hike.



On the east side of town, Mount Crested Butte rises to 12,162 feet.



The little town's population just grew by 3,000.



Guess who?



Rising in the background is the Ruby Range. It's a sub-range of the Elk Range. The West Elk Range rises southwest of the Ruby Range.



'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe
All mimsy were the borogoves
And the mome raths outgrabe...



I took this shot because I want the old red Ford F250 sitting on the grass. The mountains rising in the background aren’t half-bad either.

Our next stop will take us 12,000 feet into the sky.

Adios